Probing ALPs and the Axiverse with Superconducting Radiofrequency Cavities

Abstract

Axion-like particles (ALPs) with couplings to electromagnetism have long been postulated as extensions to the Standard Model. String theory predicts an "axiverse" of many light axions, some of which may make up the dark matter in the universe and/or solve the strong CP problem. We propose a new experiment using superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities which is sensitive to light ALPs independent of their contribution to the cosmic dark matter density. Off-shell ALPs will source cubic nonlinearities in Maxwell's equations, such that if a SRF cavity is pumped at frequencies ${\omega }_1$ and ${\omega }_2$, in the presence of ALPs there will be power in modes with frequencies $2{\omega }_1\pm {\omega }_2$. Our setup is similar in spirit to light-shining-through-walls (LSW) experiments, but because the pump field itself effectively converts the ALP back to photons inside a single cavity, our sensitivity scales differently with the strength of the external fields, allowing for superior reach as compared to experiments like OSQAR while utilizing current technology. Furthermore, a well-defined program of increasing sensitivity has a guaranteed physics result: the first observation of the Euler-Heisenberg term of low-energy QED at energies below the electron mass. We discuss how the ALP contribution may be separated from the QED contribution by a suitable choice of pump modes and cavity geometry, and conclude by describing the ultimate sensitivity of our proposed program of experiments to ALPs.

v2: 6+4 pages, 2+1 figures. Typos fixed, references added, matches PRL version. v1: 7+2 pages, 2+1 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Flux Compactification
• Revisiting the SN1987A gamma-ray limit on ultralight axion-like particles
• The photo-philic QCD axion
• Ultra-high quality factors in superconducting niobium cavities in ambient magnetic fields up to 190 mG
• Relaxation from particle production

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• LUXE-NPOD: new physics searches with an optical dump at LUXE
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• Ultra-light axions and the kinetic Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect
• Theory of Disordered Superconductors with Applications to Nonlinear Current Response
• Probing Axions via Light Circular Polarization and Event Horizon Telescope
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• Examining axion-like particles with superconducting radio-frequency cavity
• B-modes from Post-inflationary Gravitational Waves Sourced by Axionic Instabilities at Cosmic Reionization
• New Technologies for Axion and Dark Photon Searches
• Electromagnetic Response of Disordered Superconducting Cavities
• On resonant generation of electromagnetic modes in nonlinear electrodynamics: Classical approach
• Light-shinning-through-thin-wall radio frequency cavities for probing dark photon
• Electromagnetic modeling and science reach of DMRadio-m${}^3$
• Signatures of Enhanced Superconducting Properties in Niobium Cavities
• Is there charged dark matter bound to ordinary matter? Can it produce observable quantum effects?
• The Frequency Shift and Q of Disordered Superconducting RF Cavities
• Electromagnetic Response of Superconducting RF Cavities
• The radiation emitted from axion dark matter in a homogeneous magnetic field, and possibilities for detection
• Resonant generation of high-order harmonics in nonlinear electrodynamics
• Light-shining-through-wall cavity setups for probing ALPs
• Resonant enhancement of axion dark matter decay
• Detector Challenges of the strong-field QED experiment LUXE at the European XFEL
• Hydrogen and Deuterium Tunneling in Niobium
• Axion Searches with Two Superconducting Radio-frequency Cavities
• Local Limit Disorder Characteristics of Superconducting Radio Frequency Cavities